Heya! Next year's my 18th birthday, and I'm getting £500 worth of keyboard. I'm a composer, and I want to eventually be good enough for banding, and I have no idea where to start. The one I use currently is an old Clavinova, and I'll be leaving home so that will have to stay.

So... any ideas/tips?

_________________This is worse than the time you showed me the video of two girls and a cup.

Make sure you get a keyboard that has a USB jack in it - most do these days, but you can plug your keyboard into your laptop or PC or what say you, and you can do all sorts of fun programming and composing with a combination of the two (for my composing, I use Finale - an awesome (but very expensive) program, and for recording and mixing I use Reaper, which is freeware). As for a specific model, I haven't looked at new models in a while. I've had good experiences with Yamaha keyboards if you're looking in the cheap-o range, otherwise there's Korg, Roland and Moog are the three big brands. I've had very good experiences with Korg, but I've never used the other two. I love the sound and quality of Moog products (I hear they are very well made), so if/when I get the money I'm probably gonna invest in a Moog.

_________________The Slithery-dee, he crawled out of the sea; He ate all the others, but he didn't eat me.

But this being a Protomen board, the correct choice is to opt for a Keytar.

Yea, I was going to get a keytar with the money from my job.

And then come to America

GET THE MOTHER GOOSE SIGNED!

But I have a budget of £500 to play with

Edit: Also, what good keytar for less than £200 would be worth it?

Oooh. I hope I get good enough to actually learn to play some of the synth parts of the Protomen. Dream come true, performing it with friends.

Someone hasn't seen my keytar. You may be able to find the new Roland keytar used around that price, but that's a big maybe. If your looking for something really nice in the keytar area, Your looking to spend a big chunk of change. Like 800+ US for a used one. Normal midi controllers though, run pretty cheap for newer ones. Roland's new Gaia might be in your price range.

Well, would it worth having 2 keyboards? One being a keyboard like in a school, the other being like a Yamaha stage piano. Well, I'm going to the local music shops sometime to try them out. But would 2 keyboards be a wise decision, or just a waste of money?

_________________This is worse than the time you showed me the video of two girls and a cup.

Here's the schtick with keytars--you can get one that's a full keyboard 'in it' or you can just get one that's a MIDI controller, and basically would plug into your existing keyboard, controlling the sounds from that keyboard. You could also do that with a computer and stuff.

Myself--I'd go with almost all software. I would buy the cheapest MIDI controller out there and just run shit off a laptop. But that's me.

Another problem with keytars is it's a whole different instrument to play. You wouldn't think strapping a keyboard on would change the playing dynamic, but it does by a lot. Those both look good, but Onslaught had a good point. By a weighted 88 key midi controller, and then you can run software till the cow come home and it works out a lot cheaper.

Of course, then you also need a good desktop/laptop that can actually run software synths (Reason and Reaktor are some good programs, although they do cost money, legally at least) and then you need to learn how to use them. But that's a given, I guess. I'm already experienced with programming software synths so all I really need is a controller.

Well, my laptop's designed for graphics/gaming/ordinary programming, and it's full of software for that. So software synthing (I think) is out. I would like a keyboard/synth that could potentially run straight into an amp or similar, using minimal computing as I can.

Which is why I'm gonna test out the MM-6 for simplicity.

Currently, I'm allright at piano, but with a keyboard for myself when I leave home, I'm planning to use that as my training (and fun) tool

_________________This is worse than the time you showed me the video of two girls and a cup.

Well, if it's designed for that shit it can surely handle the source load for stuff like synth sounds. Download a trial of Reason or something and just play with the synths for a bit and see if you like how it works. Or get some cables to connect your eventual keyboard and just give it a try.

Well, if it's designed for that shit it can surely handle the source load for stuff like synth sounds. Download a trial of Reason or something and just play with the synths for a bit and see if you like how it works. Or get some cables to connect your eventual keyboard and just give it a try.

I've got the cables ready. Midi to USB, which is top of the range. Also, luckily, my birthday earned me £200, which is about half the price to the synth I'm looking at.

But once my cables arrive in the post (birthday present) I'll try out with my current keyboard. But also, the keyboard (yamaha) comes with a version of cubase. But I'll see how Reason works, because I didn't like cubase that much. But then again, I'm not good at that sort of recording. I've always used programs like sibelius.

But if I get a synth, I'll play it for fun and learn the important stuff later

_________________This is worse than the time you showed me the video of two girls and a cup.